


Touch

by UndyingEmbers



Category: Pillars of Eternity
Genre: Demisexual Watcher, Dom/sub, F/M, Femdom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2019-10-27
Packaged: 2021-01-04 20:54:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21203945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UndyingEmbers/pseuds/UndyingEmbers
Summary: Tekēhu loves it when the Watcher touches him.





	Touch

The first time she touched his hand, Tekēhu felt his whole world right itself again. In the smaller tribes that lived on islands where the shores were most barren, it was not uncommon for the Roparu to starve as the tribe struggled, but for a tribe as mighty and influential as the Kahanga…that the Gullet should exist at all when the rest of Neketaka was a gem, and wealth and riches poured freely into the harbor and up the mountain…what were the Mataru doing?

“Tekēhu, it’s okay. I’m here.” Her voice was as soft and steady as her grip on his hand, and in that moment, he felt he found shelter in the storm raging around in his head.

“Captain…I…” He gripped her hand more tightly than he had meant to, but she remained still and unflinching as he regained his bearings. “Thank you, I needed that.”

Amali smiled and nodded and kept holding on to him for as long as he needed. Even so, when Tekēhu pulled away, it was only because they were in the middle of the street and still had work to do.

***

The second time they touch, it is him that holds her hand.

Foreigners had a much different concept of touching and personal space, Tekēhu had noticed. For the Huana, it is nothing to stand close to a stranger or hold someone’s hand while talking to them. 

“I know how I must seem,” he said. “We did not have the word ‘conceited’ before the Aedyrans landed on the isles.”

“Well you certainly made up for lost time,” Aloth muttered.

“If Ngati had not touched me, I…I wonder if anyone would care,” Tekēhu said. That right there was his true fear underneath the protests that he wasn’t a savior, that he could not lead the tribes…

That he wasn’t special.

He let her go before that line of thought could run any further.

***

It had been months since Tekēhu first joined Amali’s team. They haven’t shared a touch since, at least not one that hadn’t been absolutely necessary, but he never forgot how it had made him feel to touch her hands, slender and soft and slightly cool to the touch and with black, almost talon-like nails. Both times, he had been so vulnerable, and she had just been _there_.

She took the role of the savior far better than he ever did. All eyes in the Deadfire were on the Watcher of Caed Nua, and yet he had never seen Amali buckle, never heard her complain, never seen any sign of weariness when the citizens of Neketaka called out to her. For all the expectations Tekēhu had been placed under, no one had ever burdened him with chasing down a _god_. Was she truly that unflappable? Or was she putting on a _very_ good act? Either way, Tekēhu was impressed.

It felt very strange, traveling with her. He was still a curiosity, the only marine godlike most people will ever meet, and attracted a lot of attention, but other peoples’ gazes would inevitably roll over him and find their way to _her_. _She_ was the one others called to for help. _She_ was the one people knew they had to deal with to get things done. Even when they were dealing with members of the Huana, everyone knew that Amali was the one who made all the decisions. It felt…liberating—not only to escape the pressures of being the chosen of Ngati, but also to hand over the reins to another, to let someone else make the decisions.

To follow.

Amali approached Tekēhu as he ruminated on the deck of _The Valiant_. He looked up at the sound of her boots crossing the deck of the ship as she came close. All around, the deckhands were playing dice, Maia was training her bird by commanding him to fly circles around the ship, and Vela was prodding Serafin with her questions.

Tekēhu smiled broadly. “Greetings, captain.”

She returned the smile. “Greetings.” She looked once in Vela and Serafin’s direction before leaning on the railing next to Tekēhu. “You seem pensive. What’s on your mind?”

“My thoughts have swum in busy currents, captain. There is something I would like to ask you.”

“What is it?”

“How do you handle being the Watcher of Caed Nua? It must be a great burden having so many hopes and questions rest on you, yet you seem to handle it very well. What say?”

Amali sighed. “To be honest, I guess I just don’t…feel it? I don’t know. Whenever someone calls me Watcher or Lady of Caed Nua, it’s like they’re talking to someone else. Like they’re trying to capture me with a net that flies over my head every time, if that makes sense.”

“It just washes over you? I envy you.”

She cocked her head. “Is this about what we talked about earlier? About you not wanting to be a savior?”

“Ekera, just so,” he said.

She looked at him as if expecting him to say more, but Tekēhu just leaned over the railing and turned his gaze to the ocean.

“Does your…hair like it when other people touch it?” she asked.

He turned to her and smiled. “They don’t mind at all. Just don’t take them by surprise. Sometimes they sting.”

“They do?” Amali asked.

“Only sometimes,” he said. “It’s nothing too serious. You might have a mild rash for a few hours or so, but I’d hate for the captain to be in any pain.”

“Would _you_ mind if I touched your hair?” she asked.

“Ekera, please go ahead.”

She slowly and tentatively reached up towards his head until her fingers were just barely out of reach of his tentacles. The ones closest to her fingertips reached back and bumped into them. Amali reached closer towards Tekēhu’s scalp, allowing almost her entire hand to be enveloped in his hair. His tentacles gravitated towards her almost curiously at this foreign body that had just entered their territory.

“Can you feel what they feel?” she asked.

“Ekera, to an extent.” His voice had been a little softer than what he had intended. “It is a lot like hair, I say. I feel it more in my scalp if that makes any sense.”

She stopped merely letting the tentacles feel her hand and started stroking them back. She let a few slip between her fingers and moved her hand, pulling on them a little. The sensation made Tekēhu forget what he had been thinking about. Tension left his muscles, and he closed his eyes.

Amali undid the leather tie on his hair, letting his tentacles fall loose. They eagerly, but loosely closed around her hand and wrist. She laughed and stroked them some more, and Tekēhu had to hold in a sigh. He didn’t want to do anything that would interrupt this moment.

Eventually, she pulled her hand away. She handed him back the leather tie before returning to her duties.

***

It was happening again. This time, it wasn’t the city as a whole that had showed him its darker underside but the Guild itself chained one of Ngati’s sacred pets, perverted Her sacred arts. Tekēhu wasn’t sure if he would ever recover from this.

The Guild used the dragon.

They used him.

Tekēhu didn’t know how he would have coped if Amali hadn’t wrapped her arms around him, allowed him to take solace in her touch, made the mountain stop shaking for long enough for Tekēhu to put his thoughts into words.

***

It was impossible to see her eyes through the tumors on her face, but Tekēhu was simply desperate for some kind of openness, some kind of connection. Amali didn’t turn away from him, keeping her face turned to his, and he imagined he could feel her returning his gaze.

He couldn’t turn away.

When she stepped forward and ran her cool, soft fingers on his bare collarbone, it only deepened the spell he was under. Once again, the world just slipped away, all the problems of the Deadfire seeming to have vanished with the touch of her hand. He let her trail her fingers down his collarbone, feeling his troubles melt away.

“It is relaxing to lose yourself in another, I say.” He almost hadn’t meant to say it. His statement came unbidden, yet welcome, out of his lips, instinct, but something that he had wanted her to hear.

It comforted him that she seemed so sure of what she was doing.

***

The whole journey back from Magran’s Teeth, Tekēhu had watched over his captain while she lay on her bed, wide awake and babbling nonsense. Tekēhu had prayed to Ngati to help Amali reclaim what she had lost and to Tangaloa to spit her back out of his jaws, for he could not live without her.

When _The Valiant_ reached Neketaka’s harbor, the powers of the Deadfire demanded to see the Watcher immediately, regardless of her condition. Tekēhu remembered numbly lifting her out of her bed onto the stretcher, where two Huana palace servants would carry her to the Serpent’s Crown. He remembered Pallegina and Maia keeping step with their escorts, eager to report what had just happened to their respective superiors. He remembered Aloth trying and almost failing to stay calm, convincing himself that he had known Amali to crawl out of worse situations. Tekēhu himself walked at her side, urgently wishing that she would wake up.

He had been the first to notice when her babbling had started to coalesce into something resembling a phrase. At first, what had escaped her lips had been little more than a few whispered words, repeated over and over again, but as they got closer to the palace, the phrase became more and more clear.

“Eothas is going to Ukaizo. He’s going to stop the Wheel.” No one could make sense of what she was saying.

Ukaizo. The lost city of the Huana, the last resting place of Ngati’s Covenant, and the place Tekēhu had wanted so desperately to reach. It should have been monumental, and Tekēhu had been certain that it still was, but he wanted to go with _her_. He wanted…

He had to bite his lip to keep himself from crying.

Tekēhu’s hands were still shaking as he and the others presented Amali to the queen, the hazanui, and the director. The volcanic eruption and the giant tidal wave had been felt throughout the entire archipelago, and every power in the Deadfire wanted to know what was going on. While everyone else in that room shouted over each other, Tekēhu never stopped looking down at her face. The mantra she had been repeating got louder and clearer until it cut through the din.

“Eothas is going to Ukaizo. He’s going to stop the Wheel.” Everyone in that room quieted immediately and turned their eyes to the Watcher.

After that, Amali suddenly became aware. She lifted her head and turned her face to Queen Onekaza, Hazanui Karū, Director Castol, her companions…

“…What happened?” she asked, propping herself up on her elbows.

Tekēhu let out a sigh of relief and fell to his knees over her. “…I’ll choose our destination next time. No more active volcanoes, I say.”

Amali smiled and reached up to touch his cheek. Though she was wearing a glove, and that glove was rough and crusted over with ash and sea salt, Tekēhu immediately felt the now-familiar sense of calm and reassurance wash over him again.

He had his captain back.

“I swear, if we both survive this journey, I will take you wherever you want,” she said.

***

When Amali took the leap and kissed him for the first time, Tekēhu had never felt more ecstatic in his life. The sounds of the Wild Mare—the bawdy songs, the cheers and shouts of the patrons, the rhythmic pounding of people dancing—were overwhelming, and the air smelled strongly of drink, sweat, and sea air, but in that moment, it all seemed to blur around him. Once again, Tekēhu had been vulnerable, having had opened his heart to her, his insecurities and fears, and once again, she had been _there_.

She reached behind his head and grabbed a handful of his hair, and his tentacles closed in around her hand, keeping it close. A groan escaped his mouth, and Amali opened her mouth to push her tongue inside. She tasted of spiced tea and smelled of lavender soap. Her ruffled shirt felt soft on his bare skin.

The kiss had been so grounding that when they pulled away, Tekēhu felt unsteady. When they stood, Tekēhu was dramatically taller than her, but they were sitting together on the sofa to the left of the stage, and Amali had knelt up on her seat so that he could look up at her. Her soft hands cupped his face.

“I think I just took charge,” said Amali. “How was that?”

***

The first time Tekēhu shared a night with Amali in the captain’s quarters, he didn’t think his heart could pound any faster. The fact that she wasn’t…quite as experienced with sex as he was did nothing to dampen the happiness he felt when he was around her.

They stood facing one another. Amali smiled softly and caressed his face, and once again Tekēhu fell under her spell. He sighed and nuzzled her hand as he removed her glove.

“What is it?” she whispered.

“I love your hands,” he responded, feeling both compelled and wanting to tell her. “When you touch me, I feel that all my worries slip away, and I can forget all the troubles of the Deadfire.”

She stroked his cheek with her thumb. “Kneel.” Her voice was as soft and comforting as it had ever been, but it carried a strong undercurrent of command that Tekēhu did not want to resist. He did what he was told, sinking gracefully to his knees.

Amali took off her other glove and started stroking Tekēhu’s face and hair. Tekēhu put his arms around her waist and pressed his face against her midsection, just under her breasts, and moaned.

***

Ever since Tekēhu and Amali had had that moment in her cabin, Tekēhu noticed that Amali would find any excuse to touch him—her finger brushing his arm, a hand on the small of his back, a reassuring squeeze to his hand or arm, and sometimes, when she was feeling frisky, her hand would travel briefly to his backside. It made him feel calm, all those reminders that someone else was holding the reins and that he could just relax.

Tekēhu didn’t know how he had missed this his entire life. For as long as he had been old enough to feel the stirrings, he had longed for a mate that could bring him low, make him forget who he was, and just when he thought it would never happen, Amali had come and unraveled him with the touch of her hand.

***

The silk ropes wrapped tightly around his wrists and forearms felt amazing, as did Amali’s soft sheets on his skin and Amali’s beautiful hands caressing his chest. He was secured to the bed via a ring above his head where the ropes were tied to. They were both completely naked. Amali’s skin was covered with the same bulbous lumps that were on her face. They were mostly clustered around her shoulders and back, but a few smaller ones also dotted her elbows and legs, and there was more bubbling around her midsection, but it felt wonderful to have her body pressed against his.

It felt even better when she lowered her right hand and wrapped her fingers around his erect cock. He groaned as her hand moved up and down the shaft. The whole time, she had her other hand pressed against his chest. As she worked him to release, she whispered to him about how good he was and how she was so happy with him.

Tekēhu threw his head back and tugged on the ropes as release took him. As he was coming down from his orgasm, breathing heavily, Amali untied the ropes and massaged his arms.

When he regained his breath, Amali leaned in and kissed him softly. She cleaned him up with one of her handkerchiefs

“Shall I return the favor, captain?” Tekēhu asked.

Amali shook her head. “Not tonight, my love.” She settled down at his side and pulled herself close to him.

“Ekera,” he whispered. He knew that Amali would much rather perform sexual acts on him than have sexual acts performed on her. Sometimes she’d want him to bring her to pleasure. Sometimes she didn’t. Tekēhu had no problems with it. Amali was as the gods had made her.


End file.
